The London is Blue podcast spent today looking back at last night’s Conference League win, and they had some big praise for Enzo Maresca who turned around a shocking first half showing to end up winning comfortably.
“Pretty special” Maresca efforts hailed by podcasters
“I think for Maresca, this is big. Especially with the way the first half went, Pellegrini had him in knots, from a coaching perspective. And the turnaround in the second half, the complete and utter dominance of the last 30 minutes of the game [was impressive],” said presenter Nick Verlaney.
“He’s never managed in the Premier League, never managed in Europe, to do it on your maiden voyage is pretty special.”
You can see them discussing Maresca’s success in the clip embedded here:
🤩 @nickverlaney credits Enzo Maresca for steering the club to a European title despite never having managed in the PL or in a UEFA competition before!
FULL POD 👉 https://t.co/qdN6rKMms6 pic.twitter.com/JPP2yXXM17
— London Is Blue Podcast ⭐️⭐️ (@LondonBluePod) May 29, 2025
Maresca’s squad management praised by pundits
Enzo Maresca celebrates with the Conference League trophy.
Enzo Maresca celebrates with the Conference League trophy. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
The presenters also made a point of praising the way our manager had used his squad through 9 months of games scattered across the continent:
“I have my beef with the way that we play sometimes. Today is not the day to dive into those tactical nuances. Today is the day just to celebrate the team, to celebrate the fact that he got the most out of this team, that he used the team effectively in this tournament. We had the most goals ever in this tournament, it was a well managed competition from Maresca.”
We couldn’t agree more with that point. If there’s one thing you can really credit the boss for this season it’s largely being very sensible with his rotation in the Conference League. He kept his squad players happy, gave youngsters a chance and got largely good results without tiring out his main players for the league.
Now it’s time to step up to the Champions League.